After a week with no news on The Big Engine Swap, I called EuroLand 4×4 and left a message: “You guys are working on my truck and I’m calling for an update.” Ten minutes later I got a call back from the mysterious Philippe (whose accent is somewhere between Pepe Le Pew and Inspector Clouseau).

The old engine is out and Philippe’s concerns about its condition were confirmed. Unfortunately, the new engine from Zombie Motors isn’t going to be the plug-and-play fit we were told. Philippe had to contact the Land Rover folks in the UK for some instructions on how to make the new engine fit. Battery will have to be moved from the engine compartment to under the driver’s seat; instead of belt driven fan we’ll be using an electric fan for cooling (which is a better way to go I’m told); and some changes to the wiring and exhaust system. Translation: expensive.

Philippe sounded confident he could make it all work and might be finished in a week. I’ll believe it when I see it. O when Mr. Wolf sees/drives it. In three short weeks I’ll wing it out to San Francisco to finally meet Mr. Wolf and — with some luck — play with the truck before it gets shipped back to Missouri.

It’s been just over a month since my last update on the Land Rover. Speciality mechanic Philippe was giving it a final check-up before sending it my way. (“Houston, we have a problem.”) Without going into detail (at this time), there were serious problems with the engine. Rather than deal with those down the road — without the services of Philippe and Mr. Wolf — we decided to put in a new/rebuilt engine.

Mr. Wolf found what we needed at Zombie Motors. A 300Tdi 2.5 liter diesel engine that will be a major upgrade from what’s presently in the truck (specs below) and you can read about 300Tdi engines here. Zak at Zombie Motors sent a couple of photos of the block, just back from the machine shop.

The engine will be assembled next week (at Zombie Motors) and shipped back to SF where Philippe will do the swap. Then Mr. Wolf picks it up to put some more check-up miles on the new engine. Once he puts his stamp of approval on it, I fly out for a little celebration and we ship the truck back to Missouri.

Zombie Motors – engine update (PDF)
Zombie Motors – Tdi engine conversion (PDF)

Philippe (the “specialty mechanic”) has had my truck for a couple of weeks, giving it the final inspection. He drove it a bit and put it on the lift, running down Mr. Wolf’s punch list. Mostly small stuff. He’ll probably put in a new ignition switch; check the play in the steering; and see if he can fix some small thing in the turn signal that Mr. Wolf found annoying.

The only big item seems to be adjusting the timing and Mr. Wolf says that’s not all that big a deal. The video below (not my truck) shows a chap inspecting the timing chain on his Land Rover.

Depending on Philippe’s work load, my truck might be done by the end of the week. Nothing left to do but fly out to San Mateo to celebrate and play with the truck for a couple of days before shipping it to Missouri.

Everybody hates those badges car dealers bolt on to new cars. But nobody removes them. Except me and Mr. Wolf.

The folks that did the initial restoration on my truck stuck a couple of these on and I would have left them if they hadn’t been so sloppy with the restoration. I can’t, in good conscience, promote these guys. Mr. Wolf, on the other hand, has been my salvation so I had a little custom badge made. You can see the one we’re replacing in this photo.